Teya launches 3% business savings pots through ClearBank

Teya, the payments and business-software provider used by small UK merchants, has added interest-bearing savings to its app. From 24 September 2026, existing customers with an active Teya Business Account can open instant-access "Savings Pots" paying 3% Annual Equivalent Rate (AER), variable, according to ClearBank's launch announcement, dated the same day.

AER is a standardised measure that shows what a saver would earn over a year if the rate stayed the same and interest were compounded into the balance. Because Teya's rate is variable, it can rise or fall, and the 3% AER advertised on 25 September 2026 is not a promise of what a pot will pay in future.

The launch matters to UK small businesses because it changes where spare cash can sit without the owner leaving the Teya Business Account app. It also introduces a regulatory distinction that Teya customers need to understand before they move money: the ordinary Teya Business Account is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), while eligible deposits placed in a Savings Pot are, because the two products are provided by different regulated firms.

How Savings Pots work

Savings Pots sit alongside the Teya Business Account inside the same app. A customer can open up to ten pots and, according to Teya's help material, there is currently no fixed maximum balance per pot. Money can be moved between a pot and the linked Business Account at any time; Teya describes these transfers as instant or near real-time, with no notice period and no withdrawal penalty. Customers can also schedule recurring transfers into or out of a pot on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis.

Interest is calculated daily. ClearBank takes the cleared balance in each pot at 11:59pm and works out that day's interest, which is then paid into the pot on the following calendar day. Because interest below one penny is not paid until it accrues to at least that amount, very small balances may see interest appear irregularly rather than every single day. Teya's help page describes the rate as a variable tracker linked to the Bank of England base rate, and says it will give customers at least 14 days' advance notice before cutting the rate; increases apply automatically without advance notice. The public material does not disclose the tracker's margin or exact formula, so a reader cannot calculate from it alone how the pot rate will move if Bank Rate changes.

Teya says Savings Pots are not currently available to US citizens or US residents, citing international tax-reporting rules, and that customers remain responsible for declaring and paying any tax due on the interest they earn.

Who actually holds the money

Teya is not a bank. Teya Solutions Ltd is an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, with reference number 978181. Funds held in the ordinary Teya Business Account are e-money: they are safeguarded under the UK's e-money safeguarding regime, but safeguarding is not the same protection as an FSCS-covered bank deposit.

Savings Pots work differently. ClearBank Limited, the UK-authorised bank behind the product — authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and regulated by the FCA and PRA — is the deposit-taker, delivered through what ClearBank calls its embedded-banking infrastructure. ClearBank described Savings Pots as the first savings product to come out of its partnership with Teya and said further savings products are planned, though no launch date, rate or eligibility detail has been published for whatever comes next.

FSCS protection and where the line falls

This is the detail most likely to affect a business owner's decision about how much cash to leave in a pot. Eligible deposits held with ClearBank are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 in total, a limit that took effect on 1 December 2025 and replaced the previous £85,000 threshold. The limit applies per eligible depositor, per PRA-authorised institution — not per pot and not per account. A business that opens all ten of its allowed pots does not get ten separate £120,000 limits; every eligible deposit it holds with ClearBank is added together against the single limit.

How that limit applies depends on the legal status of the business. FSCS guidance treats a sole trader as one depositor whose eligible personal and business deposits with the same authorised firm share a single £120,000 limit. A limited company or LLP is generally treated as a separate depositor from its owners and may have its own £120,000 limit, subject to the usual eligibility rules and exclusions — the FSCS says most individuals and businesses are covered, but some categories, including certain authorised financial-services firms, are not.

There is a wrinkle worth flagging on temporary high balances. Alongside the £120,000 standard limit, the FSCS framework also raised its temporary-high-balance protection to £1.4m from 1 December 2025, but that higher figure is tied to specific, prescribed life events rather than routine business cash sitting in a savings pot, and eligibility is assessed by the FSCS only if a bank fails. A business should not assume the higher figure applies to it. Any customer weighing up how much to hold across ClearBank products needs to know their own total eligible deposits with the bank, since amounts above the aggregate limit may not be covered if ClearBank were to fail.

One further point on language: Teya and ClearBank's announcement describes Savings Pots as "FSCS-insured". The FSCS scheme is more precisely described as protection subject to depositor eligibility rules and the aggregate limit — it is not an insurance policy a customer buys, and cover is not unconditional.

What embedded savings could change

Folding a savings account into the same app used to manage a Teya Business Account may reduce the number of steps involved in moving spare cash into an interest-bearing pot. Teya says that in interviews with its members, more than half said they did not earn interest on spare cash because managing money across several accounts was too much hassle. Teya did not publish the sample size, fieldwork period or methodology behind that figure, so it should be read as a company-reported finding rather than a representative measure of UK small-business behaviour generally.

With that caveat, the mechanics of the product point to some plausible uses: a business could label pots for tax, payroll, supplier payments or a general contingency fund, and set up scheduled transfers so cash moves automatically rather than through a manual bank transfer initiated separately from the account dashboard. Whether that reduces friction enough to change how UK small businesses actually manage cash is not something the available evidence establishes — it is an effect the product design makes possible, not one that has been independently measured.

The rate and the risk

Savings Pots pay 3% AER variable, and that rate can change at any time under Teya's own terms. A business comparing Savings Pots against other instant-access accounts should check current rates directly, since any rate printed in an article dated 25 September 2026 will not necessarily hold by the time a reader checks. Businesses should also weigh their liquidity needs against the number of pots they hold and their reliance on transfers completing without delay.

What to watch next

Teya's help article was last updated on 27 August 2026, ahead of the 24 September 2026 launch announcement, and the public material does not say whether the rollout reached all existing Business Account customers at once or in stages. The tracker margin behind the 3% AER and the full Savings Pots terms have not been published in the sources reviewed for this article; Teya's in-app Summary Box, together with those terms once available, would settle exactly how the rate moves against Bank Rate. ClearBank has also said a further, "premium" savings product is coming out of its partnership with Teya, without giving a date, rate or eligibility criteria. Readers who want the current rate, full terms or FSCS eligibility for their own circumstances should check Teya's in-app Summary Box and the FSCS's own guidance rather than relying on a snapshot taken on the day of launch.